


Dreaming

by procrastigaytion



Category: Dragon Quest XI
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bands, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, the gals are no longer just pals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:20:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24725920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/procrastigaytion/pseuds/procrastigaytion
Summary: “Just think about it, okay? You have plenty of time, and Jade’s not going anywhere anytime soon.”“No, you’re right,” Serena responded quietly. “I want to do something, but I’m not sure what. Maybe a song?” Her suggestion was hesitant, but Veronica was quick to agree.“Why not? We are a band, after all.”
Relationships: Camus | Erik/Hero | Luminary (Dragon Quest XI), Marutina | Jade/Sena | Serena
Comments: 14
Kudos: 25





	Dreaming

**Author's Note:**

> haha lesbians go brrr
> 
> I’m an absolute sucker for band aus, like I’ll think of a way to make up one for every fandom I’m in, except they usually stay in my head. Not this time, though!!

Serena was sure her heart was going to burst.

She could have fooled herself into thinking that it was due to Eleven’s energetic pounding of the drums, a far cry from the meek boy who sat in front of her in English.

But then she turned to face Jade, and that excuse was unquestionably shattered into pieces.

Watching her friend keep quick fingers on the bass, strands of long hair falling out of her ponytail into her face and beads of sweat glistening on her biceps, Serena’s microphone almost slipped out of her hand, and she was shot a quick look of concern.

She gave the tiniest of nods before returning to her singing, willing herself to focus. Apparently, this didn’t go entirely unnoticed, as she could feel Veronica’s eyes boring into the back of her skull.

She adored her sister dearly, but on some very rare occasions she wished she wasn’t so attuned to her feelings.

The song came to an end without further incident, and Veronica immediately flopped onto the floor, complaining about the overbearing heat while tugging on the collar of her dress. As Erik left to grab himself a drink, she called, “Get one for me!”

He turned his head back to her. “Respect your elders, kid.”

“I’m only a few months younger than you!” Veronica retorted, and stuck her tongue out.

Nevertheless, he returned a minute later with five cans of lemonade, and handed them out. And naturally, when he came to Eleven last, he opened his can for him and sat beside him, their shoulders comfortably against each other.

Serena watched them with a sort of wistfulness. What she wouldn’t give to have that kind of relationship with someone, the kind she had read about in so many of her favourite books.

Veronica had tried reading a romance novel once, and she came to Serena barely a day later, full of complaints. “ _None of this drama would have happened if they had just talked to each other_ ,” she had said, the first of her many critiques, and while Serena couldn’t disagree, she still dearly loved watching the lead characters overcome their hurdles to be with each other.

On that topic, she didn’t have a clue what kind of books Jade read, if she even did read. Was she weak for romance like her? Or did she enjoy a thrilling mystery or an exciting adventure?

“Something wrong?” Jade suddenly asked, voice laced with worry, and it was then that Serena realised that she had been staring at her the entire time.

“No, nothing at all!” she was quick to reply, before backtracking slightly. “Actually, I was only wondering if you liked to read.”

Jade’s eyebrows went up. “That’s a sudden question,” she noted, but there was no malice in her voice. “I only read a little, not as much as you. I really like mysteries.”

Serena smiled, proud that she was right. “I have quite a few of those myself, you know. You can always ask if you want to borrow them.”

“That’d be lovely.”

“Nerds,” Erik said from behind them, and Veronica threw her empty can at him.

* * *

Serena was a good student.

She focused in class, never misbehaved, and always got good grades (though never as stellar as her sister’s).

So why was she now quietly tapping her pen against her desk in the middle of class, notebook open with half-written lyrics there instead of biology notes?

Well, she knew that answer. She had stayed up late the previous night to finish reading a novel that had her in an iron grip when she was _supposed_ to be coming up with lyrics for the band’s newest song, and now she was paying for it with her grades.

“ _So_ ,” Veronica whispered from beside her. Serena took a quick glance at her notes, and saw they were neatly laid out and colour-coded as usual. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you have the hots for El’s gorgeous sister.”

She had been waiting for this conversation for a while, though she hadn’t expected it to take place during class. She bit her lip. “Veronica, should we really be talking about this right now?”

Her sister shrugged. “It’s as good a time as any. You’re not concentrating, anyway.” She nodded at the lyrics on Serena’s page, who quickly flipped it over and started to hastily scrawl notes in an attempt to get away from the inevitable lecture.

At least to her it was a hasty scrawl, but to anyone else it looked as neat as ever.

“Listen,” Veronica sighed. “All I’m going to say is that I’m pretty sure she likes you too. In that way. Also Erik keeps whining about how obvious you guys are, and I hate that I can’t disagree with him.”

“Th- that’s not...” Serena began, but her voice trailed off when she realised that she couldn’t find anything to argue back with. She stayed silent, hiding her very red cheeks behind her curtain of hair. Veronica gave her a triumphant grin, but then her expression softened slightly.

“Just think about it, okay? You have plenty of time, and Jade’s not going anywhere anytime soon.”

“No, you’re right,” Serena responded quietly. “I want to do something, but I’m not sure what. Maybe a song?” Her suggestion was hesitant, but Veronica was quick to agree.

“Why not? We are a band, after all.”

* * *

“So let me get this straight,” Erik said, biting into a fry. “You want to ask _me_ for dating advice?” He raised an incredulous eyebrow.

Serena nodded enthusiastically, lowering her voice so that the others in the fast-food place wouldn’t overhear. “There must be something you can tell me, seeing that you have Eleven. Please?” She batted her eyelashes at him, something that was usually unintentional, but was definitely _not_ this time.

He sighed. “Fine. Rule number one: don’t take advice from me.”

“Come on, you’re the only person I know who’s in a relationship!”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I know how I did it.” He chewed contemplatively, resting his chin in his hand. Serena leaned forward expectantly, notebook open and ready to write like an eager student. “Actually, I don’t think I even did anything. Or him. It was all his _mum_.”

Serena blinked. “Huh?”

“I went over to his place for dinner one night, and his mum was all, ‘ _Oh, it’s so nice that you finally have a boyfriend, El! You don’t need to be shy about it!_ ’ And then we kinda just looked at each other and went with it. We talked about it later, and it turned out that yeah, we were basically already a couple.” Erik shrugged and looked over to her, a grin beginning to form on his features. “So what I’m saying is, you _really_ don’t want to take dating advice from me.”

“That’s not... what I was expecting.” Still, Serena found it admirable in its own way. And extremely characteristic of the two of them. She remembered Veronica and Jade having a bet on when they would get together, and the pout that seemed to permanently mark her sister’s face when she mourned her lost money.

And then Jade had spent some of her newfound fortune on treating herself and Serena to ice-cream after practice once. Her mind sometimes wandered to that evening, and even now she could feel her cheeks heating up.

Erik laughed suddenly. “It’s so easy to see right through you. Right now, you’re thinking of Jade, how you want to kiss her in the moonlight as you run your hands through her silky black hair and dream of raising five dogs with her in your future country cottage.”

“Erik!”

“Am I wrong?”

Serena let her head fall onto her notebook. They were getting nowhere today.

* * *

So here she was in the park with Eleven, who was currently slamming a hand down on the sheets of paper spread across the table to stop them blowing away in the wind like an improvised game of whack-a-mole.

She didn’t know why they didn’t just go indoors for this.

“So, um, Eleven, can I ask you about something?” she asked, suddenly feeling rather nervous. For some reason, the thought of asking her crush’s little brother for advice made her unsure of what to say, afraid that he’d go telling on her.

“Hm?” Eloquent as always.

“If I said that I... kind of liked Jade, and wanted to find a good opportunity to confess to her in a song, what kind of setting would you recommend?”

Eleven’s head snapped up, and a practice exam paper went flying off into the sky, never to be seen again. He frowned at it like a hurt puppy before turning back to Serena. “So that’s what Erik meant yesterday.”

“What do you mean?” Maybe it wasn’t Eleven she should have been worried about.

“He said that the two of us may have been obvious, but there were some certain people that made even him want to pull his hair out, and that’s saying something. You know how protective he is of his hair.”

“...He has a point, though,” Serena admitted. “I’ve been thinking for a few days on how to go about this, and I just can’t settle on anything.”

Eleven hummed, tapping his pen against his cheek. Serena briefly turned her attention to her lyrics, now three-quarters written instead of half, until he spoke again.

“I dunno. Jade isn’t much of a fan of big gestures,” was what he came out with.

Serena deflated, but she nodded anyway. “You’re right. Maybe I should think of something el—“

“What about her back garden? Just the five of us?”

She stopped, almost dropping her pen on the grass. She had been to Jade’s place a few times before, and the garden had always been her favourite feature. The colourful flowers, the little fountain, and the deck that was perfect to perform on. She had spent so much time thinking about grand gestures that she forgot that maybe, something cosy and homely could work instead.

“That’s a great idea, Eleven,” she replied, beaming at him. He gave her a small smile.

“I’ll ask Jade if we can hold practice there in a few days,” he began.

Serena was quick to catch on. “Except at the end, we’ll perform our new song, and I’ll tell her how I feel! Where did you learn to be so good at this?”

Eleven’s cheeks darkened slightly. “Sylv taught me a thing or two. Said I might need it in the future.”

While she could have pressed further, she instead took to adding to her lyrics, hit with a spark of motivation. There was no backing out now.

Rather than feeling nervous, Serena’s heart leapt with anticipation, which came as a surprise to her. She couldn’t wait for the performance.

* * *

“Go to sleep. I can feel you practically _vibrating_ ,” Veronica whispered from the top bunk.

* * *

Serena was sure her heart was going to burst.

And this time, she knew exactly why.

They had practiced the new song a few times before, but to Jade right now, it was probably nothing more than an innocent, unspecific love song.

“ _You’re really good at writing lyrics, Serena_ ,” she had said after reading the finished version for the first time. “ _As expected of a budding author, and of my friend_.”

There was a lot that Serena wanted to do in her life. She wanted to write stories that would be remembered by thousands of young children. She wanted to become a doctor that would save lives and make so many others that much easier. She wanted to open a small cake shop after retiring and travel around the world, letting people enjoy her sweet creations.

She wanted, above all, to remain friends with everybody here, and to become more than friends with a certain bassist.

Their short break ended, and they collectively agreed to do one more song before wrapping up for the evening. Veronica grinned knowingly at Serena, knowing what was coming, and as she glanced at the boys, they also gave her encouraging nods.

They poured everything into the song. Serena let her voice ring out across the neighbourhood, and she was sure that the other instruments could be heard for miles.

She caught Jade’s eye and noticed the exhilarating smile that crossed her face as she shook her head to rid her face of strands of hair. They locked eyes for a few moments, and it gave her the last push she needed to end the song on a strong note. It had been a while since she felt so strongly about the lyrics she had written, and even as the last note of the guitar faded out, she meant every last word of it.

“Jade,” she said, clutching her microphone in both hands to hide the fact that they were shaking. She couldn’t tell if it was from nerves or the excitement pumping through her. “I have something I want to say.”

“Of course, go ahead.” Jade’s smile was warm. Serena had her full attention, and the others waited silently.

She took a deep breath. “You see, I like you. I have done so for a while. When Eleven invited you to join our band, I had no idea that you would end up becoming one of the people I love most, but I don’t regret that at all.” She giggled despite herself. “Forgive me for sounding cliche, but I am someone who loves books a lot. You don’t have to give me an answer, but I—“

“You beat me to it,” Jade said, her voice carefully even. Serena’s breath hitched. “I was going to do the same, but I guess you were just quicker. I like you too, Serena. Really.”

Serena wasn’t sure what to say. She had carefully thought out her confession for a while, but she didn’t plan for an actual answer, let alone a positive one. Everything had led up to this, and now that it was real, she didn’t know how to react.

Suddenly remembering the rest of her friends, she gestured to them, still unsure if she was dreaming or not. She decided that the shock would probably hit her later, in the comfort of her room. “Well, I did get the input of everyone else. They helped a lot,” she said when she found her voice again.

There was no more need for words, as Jade held her arms out, and Serena settled into them, wrapping her arms around her back. She had her fairytale ending, and this was all she could ask for.

* * *

“Hey, guitar boy. Pay up.”

Erik defeatedly dropped his money into the palm of a triumphant Veronica. She had apparently long since gotten over her last loss.

**Author's Note:**

> I’ll definitely be adding more to this au in the future, which I’m looking forward to!
> 
> Also I wrote most of this at night and it’s really late now and I need to be up early tomorrow. whoops


End file.
